The hands-on people who build, inspect, repair, and certify every aircraft, from jet engines to cabin seats.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Director of Maintenance (Aviation): Runs the whole maintenance operation for an airline, charter company, or repair station and answers to the FAA for it. Typical pay $140k.
Aircraft Reliability / Maintenance Engineer: Engineer at an airline or MRO who studies breakdown data and designs repairs and inspection programs to keep a fleet flying. Typical pay $134k.
Jet Engine Field Service Representative: Expert from an engine maker who flies to airlines around the world to solve tough engine problems. Typical pay $120k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Aircraft Mechanic (A&P): Inspects, repairs, and maintains airplanes and helicopters, from engines to landing gear. Typical pay $79k.
Avionics Technician: Installs and repairs the electronics in aircraft: radios, autopilots, radar, navigation, and glass cockpit screens. Typical pay $81k.
Aircraft Inspector (IA): Senior mechanic authorized to inspect other mechanics' work and approve aircraft as airworthy after major repairs. Typical pay $85k.
Helicopter Mechanic: Maintains helicopters, whose spinning rotor systems need constant, precise inspection. Typical pay $80k.
Nondestructive Testing (NDT) Technician: Uses ultrasound, X-ray, eddy currents, and dyes to find hidden cracks in aircraft parts without damaging them. Typical pay $72k.
Aircraft Composite Repair Technician: Repairs carbon-fiber and fiberglass parts on modern aircraft like the Boeing 787 and on helicopter rotor blades. Typical pay $62k.
Flight Simulator Technician: Keeps the multi-million-dollar full-motion simulators that airlines and the military use for pilot training running perfectly. Typical pay $80k.
Aircraft Maintenance Planner: Schedules every inspection and repair so planes get fixed on time without missing flights. Typical pay $72k.
Aircraft Structure Assembler: Builds new aircraft on the factory line: fitting fuselage panels, installing wiring and hydraulics, and rigging controls. Typical pay $60k.
Warbird & Vintage Aircraft Restorer: Rebuilds World War II fighters, biplanes, and other historic aircraft so they can fly again. Typical pay $80k.
Aviation Maintenance Instructor: Teaches students how to become licensed aircraft mechanics at aviation maintenance schools. Typical pay $64k.
Aircraft Maintenance Controller: Coordinates repairs on an airline's planes in real time so flights leave on time and safely. Typical pay $80k.
Jet Engine Overhaul Technician: Takes jet engines completely apart, inspects every part, and rebuilds them. Typical pay $80k.
Aircraft Propeller Technician: Overhauls and balances airplane propellers in special repair shops, from crop dusters to cargo turboprops. Typical pay $62k.
Aircraft Fuel Tank Technician: Crawls inside airplane wings, which hold the fuel, to find and seal leaks while wearing an air-supplied suit. Typical pay $66k.
Landing Gear Overhaul Technician: Rebuilds the huge landing gear legs of airliners every 10 years, stripping, inspecting and reassembling every part. Typical pay $60k.
Starter: fastest way in
Aircraft Painter: Strips, preps, and paints aircraft, including the airline logos and liveries you see at the gate. Typical pay $52k.
Aircraft Interior Technician: Repairs and installs seats, carpets, galleys, bins, and luxury interiors in airliners and private jets. Typical pay $50k.
Aviation Parts / Stores Specialist: Tracks, ships, and receives aircraft parts and makes sure each one has the paperwork proving it's legitimate. Typical pay $45k.
Aircraft Teardown Technician: Takes apart retired airliners in desert boneyards, removing engines and parts that will be inspected and sold for reuse. Typical pay $48k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.